Apoptosis of smooth muscle cells is a common feature of vascular lesions. Unlike necrosis, apoptosis is classically considered to be "silent," i.e., self-contained and non-inflammatory. I have found that signals initiated ...

Nutrient sensing and growth signaling pathways are key regulators of healthspan and longevity. Caloric restriction, the most widely studied and well documented intervention in aging, functions largely through effects on ...

An improved understanding of the factors that regulate the migration of human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CMs) would provide new insights into human heart development and suggest novel strategies to ...

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a flagellated bacterium and one of the leading causes of gastroenteritis in humans. Bacterial flagellin is required for motility and also a prime target of the innate immune system. ...

Within this dissertation, we have determined how components of the host's innate immune system and structural features of flagellin, a pathogen associated molecular pattern (PAMP) and the major structural component of ...

Coxiella burnetii, a zoonotic pathogen and agent of Q fever, is an obligate intracellular bacterium that hijacks host cell machinery to form a large, acidified replicative vacuole from which it injects proteins into the ...

<italic>Rationale:</italic> Phagocytosis of apoptotic cells (efferocytosis) is mediated by apoptotic cell receptors and is essential for resolution of inflammation. In chronic inflammation, apoptotic cell clearance is ...

The sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin, CD33/Siglec-3, is a founding member of a subgroup of highly related Siglecs with differential expression in the innate immune system. Common structural features include ...

Mechanical forces are important modulators of cellular function in various tissues and are particularly important in the cardiovascular system. The endothelial cell layer, by virtue of its unique location in the vessel ...

Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an aggressive skin cancer with a disease-specific mortality of 46%. Unfortunately, no FDA-approved treatments for advanced disease exist. Over 80% of MCCs are caused by persistent expression ...

Mitochondrial dysfunction is an early event in many neurodegenerative diseases, with impaired bioenergetics and migration acting as neurodegenerative triggers. Mitochondrial disruption in the form of reduced bioenergetic ...

Retroviral vectors are being increasingly used to deliver genes to human cells which are then returned to a patient' s body, both for medical research and direct therapeutic goals. One requirement in such ex vivo gene ...

Osteopontin is an adhesive glycoprotein implicated in numerous diseases associated with inflammation and remodeling. There are several structural domains in osteopontin of particular interest. The RGD motif is a cell-attachment ...

Introduction: Maintenance of proper protein homeostasis (proteostasis) is essential to cellular and organismal health. A wealth of research has shown that age-related diseases and conditions are associated with the inability ...